


Towards the Storm

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel 616, Thor (Comics)
Genre: 616 spoilers, Breast cancer, Female Thor, Gen, Marvel 616 - Freeform, Mjolnir - Freeform, New Thor, Secret Wars, The Avengers - Freeform, original sin - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 15:03:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3982519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane Foster is worthy.  Jane Foster is the Mighty Thor.  But was she always this way?<br/>This fic seeks to examine Jane's path to picking up the mighty hammer Mjolnir, and her journey as a heroine who, underneath it all, is only human.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Towards the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Here is the first chapter of my Jane Foster POV fic, trying to patch in some background to the new Thor series despite all the mystery that colored the first 7 issues. I really want to show through this why I love the character so much, and what I believe was going on behind the scenes of what we were shown.
> 
> This particular chapter focuses on Thor: God of Thunder #12 and #24, respectively. The title comes from the song Your Bones (Of Monsters and Men).
> 
> Recommended Listening: St. Jude (Florence + the Machine), Below My Feet (Mumford and Sons)

I did not ask for this hammer to be called to me.

-

Thor came and visited me for the first time in months about six weeks after the diagnosis. Two weeks after the surgery. Three days after the chemo. I almost threw up when he showed up on my porch. It wouldn’t have been a very nice way to welcome him to Oklahoma, so I did my best to keep it in.

It was really nothing personal.

Walter and I hadn’t really been expecting him, not that there was anything we could have done to prepare. Walter was my boyfriend at the time. He was sweet, but the diagnosis scared him. He reacted nearly the same way Thor did, but Walter was just a man and couldn’t run off to get healing stones from a magical place worlds away. All he could do was drive me home from the hospital in silence. At least the hospital staff was friendly. They were my coworkers, a good deal of them.

They never really tell you what happens when the doctor gets sick.

-

He was so insistent on taking me to Asgard to see the healers. They apparently have magic enough to just get rid of the cancer. I told him it was a bit too late to save my hair though. Thor didn’t think that was so funny.

Asgardians can do all kinds of things, but what I’ve learned that they can’t do is understand mortality. I guess you get accustomed to being indestructible when your race comes out of the womb ready to swing swords and ride horses. As far as I know, they just don’t get sick the same way we do. They don’t die the same way we do.

Thor could not fathom why I would just willingly accept this as my fate. He offered those stupid healing stones again. And I thought about it.

But only for a second.

Most women with breast cancer don’t get to budget themselves for the possibility of having an Asgardian god come crashing down one afternoon to whisk them away to the magicians that live in his palace. In fact, none of them do. So why was I any different? I was raised on good old Earth medicine for good old mortals, and though I’m not religious I have as much faith in it as anything. Even when it fails.

Even when it failed to save my mother.

Do you know what it’s like to be powerless while someone you love is dying?

Now that I think about it, I realize that’s what must have scared Thor so much when he saw me. But I was just doing what any woman would do in my situation. Because it’s the best choice I had.

-

“ _Be careful, Jane. The terrain here on the moon is unlike any you have tread upon, and the gravity_ -"

“ _Thor, my legs work just fine. It’s just my immune system and some rogue cells that are giving me problems. But thank you_.”

“ _Are you always this stubborn_?”

“ _I have to be. And I call it being persistent. You don’t win a fight being anything less.”_ A pause. _“I’m sorry. You’re not the battle I need to be fighting_.”

“ _Jane Foster, you are unlike any mortal I have ever known._ ”

A smile crossed tired lips.

“ _Yeah? Well, you’re pretty special too. Don’t get a big head about it, though... Wow, look at it all_.”

His chuckle rumbled like thunder, even against the vacuum of space. Thor kept his eyes on the small woman as she stared at the splendor of the Earth in the distance. Its land masses and swirling clouds were reflected in her wide eyes.

For a moment, he saw all the life and vitality of the world in her and forgot there would come a time very soon where he would have to leave her in a final resting place. And even until that day, she was not his. Though she was seeing another man, he knew Jane belonged entirely to herself. He loved that about her, and wanted more than anything to be a part of her fleeting life.

Thor was never very good at letting go of things.

-

The second time Thor came to visit, I didn’t have a porch to sit on. But that was his fault. I may not live to see a lot of things in my lifetime, but at least I can say that a Norse alien did battle with an environmentally insensitive Minotaur in my town. Reduced it to rubble. I don’t feel that badly about it, though.

Well, I felt bad for Walter. He worked in real estate, which is kind of hard when there’s no real estate left. But that’s not why I broke up with him. I’m not that mean.

He did his best to help me, honestly, he did. But things got weird after Thor and the Asgardians came to town. I think Walter got jealous. Actually, things got weird after the diagnosis. The Asgardians and the cancer. I came with a lot of surprises that I wasn’t even aware of, when we started dating. I don’t blame him for needing to reevaluate some choices. Especially his career.

It was Thor who felt he owed me the most for what had happened. Which was a valid assessment on his part- he did wipe Broxton off the map, after all. But it was more than that, I think.

We walked through the debris of a once quiet town. News cameras faced every direction, their lenses like bright, reflective eyes trying to observe the madness of it all. Thor was stopped a few times to answer questions. I was stopped too- they were less willing to believe the story from me until Thor gave it some credibility.

Being interviewed in front of the spot where the hospital- my hospital- once stood makes it hard to be anything but sincere. Roxxon still loomed large in the distance. It was easier to see without all the homes and businesses in the way, I guess.

-

The Asgardians came to help us rebuild. I felt so useless, without a clinic to help people. Without a home to rest in. I wanted to do something, anything, but instead I just wandered. I waited for Thor to finish his work, driven by guilt and duty. I firmly believe in the capability of the human race to care for and protect our own.

But of course, we were never prepared for magic and minotaurs and gods.

It would take a long time to rebuild Broxton, a lot longer than any of us wanted to acknowledge. I found something funny the whole time Thor was helping to move sheets of rock and stucco and the remnants of a community who wanted nothing to do with the dealings of gods and monsters. I know it wasn’t funny at the moment, but his hammer was hanging off his belt. He wasn’t acknowledging it. A weapon. It leveled monuments and shattered pavement. He refused to bring further destruction to the town.

Did no one ever realize the hammer was a builder’s tool? It could construct just as easily as tear down.

I said nothing about it, though. I wanted him to deal with things his own way. I had enough problems to worry me anyhow. When you hit the bottom, there is nowhere to go but up. Even if you have to rebuild from the scraps that used to be a home, or your work, or your favorite grocery store or the library. Nowhere but up.

I hadn’t realized that expression was so literal.

Thor asked me to join the Congress of Worlds- I know, I’d never heard of it either. But he felt like he owed me. A new job, a new home. I would live in Asgardia and represent the entirety of Earth- Midgard- on a council of representatives from each realm. I would be responsible for representing and protecting the wellbeing of the entire world.

What did I have to lose?

Just in case he was trying to get me closer to the healers, I put my foot down about the magic thing once more. He finally seemed to relent. I still wasn’t convinced he wouldn’t try to perhaps sneak an elixir in my water bottle or exchange my IV bag with phoenix tears or something. But I said sure, I’d take the job. I would have the Bifrost at my disposal if I needed it for treatments and visits to home. Or whatever was left of it.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to pack- losing everything kind of makes it easy to travel light. I entered the castle and Freyja promised she would look after me. The Asgardians would outfit me with more traditional clothes, and provide room and board. All I had to do in exchange was to be my kind, loving self who kept the best interests of her fellow humans at heart. Sounded easy enough.

I was surprised to hear that Thor wouldn’t join us just yet. He still had quite a bit of unfinished business in Broxton, and maybe some unrequited affections too. I think her name was Roz. It wouldn’t be long before we saw each other again, but not in any way I could have expected.

Asgardia left the ground, and I went with it. The next time I would visit Earth, my life would be forever changed.


End file.
